Torpedo blast sank Kursk - Russia

Moscow was slow to admit Russian technology could have been at fault

MOSCOW, Russia -- A senior Russian minister has finally cleared NATO or any foreign vessels of sinking Russia's Kursk nuclear submarine two years ago, admitting a faulty torpedo was to blame.

"There remains only one version -- a torpedo blast," Ilya Klebanov, who chairs an official investigation into the disaster in which 118 crew members died, said in comments on RTR television.

"The commission has discounted a collision and a mine," said the trade, science and technology minister, writing a line under a disaster that shocked Russia and jolted the young presidency of Vladimir Putin.

The Klebanov commission report is expected later this year into Russia's worst peacetime naval catastrophe.

The Kursk was one of Russia's most powerful nuclear submarines. It sank following an explosion during naval exercises in August 2000, killing all those on board, although some survived for several hours in the rear of the vessel.

EXTRA INFORMATION In-depth: Raising of the Kursk

In the wake of the calamity, many senior navy officers were slow to admit a failure of Russian technology on one of the country's most up-to-date, showpiece vessels.

They suggested the sinking could have been caused by a collision with a NATO submarine -- always denied by the Western alliance -- or a World War II-era mine.

Confirming the work of Western analysts. navy chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov pointed his finger at a torpedo fault in February, saying the model used by the Kursk was being withdrawn. Suspicions have focused on the weapon's unstable propeller.

Klebanov said the commission had told navy chiefs to stop trying to raise more of the Kursk's front section, which was left on the seabed last year when the bulk of the shattered vessel was raised.

He said there was no need to raise anything else from the seabed for the investigation. Most of the 150-metre (500 foot), 18,000 tonne nuclear-powered boat was raised in an unprecedented recovery operation last year.

Dismantling the vessel, which was armed with nuclear-capable cruise missiles, will take the final bill of the operation to about $130 million, a significant sum for Russia's much-reduced naval budget.

The loss of the Kursk stunned Russia, leading to national soul-searching and an outpouring of grief.

Stung by accusations he had failed to grasp the seriousness of the tragedy, Putin, who was on holiday at the time, made it a point of honour to raise the Kursk and give the ill-fated crew a decent burial.

In total, 115 bodies have been identified and buried in two recovery operations. The remaining three are believed to be mutilated beyond recognition.